Perioperative Preparation, Monitoring and Assessment

Measures taken before or around a procedure to prepare, assess or protect a patient from infection and complications, rather than a technique that delivers anesthesia, sedation or a life-support intervention itself. This includes infection-control measures around a procedure (antisepsis, aseptic technique, medical sterilization, antibiotic prophylaxis), preoperative evaluation and preparation of the patient (preanesthetic assessment, preoperative care, preoperative fasting, premedication, prehabilitation), and the broader structured perioperative care pathway that coordinates these steps across a whole surgical episode (enhanced recovery after surgery). A measure whose defining purpose is delivering anesthesia, sedation, pain relief, airway support or a life-support intervention, rather than preparing for or protecting against a complication of the procedure itself, is grouped elsewhere. This group is broadened from the report's own proposed name, "Perioperative Monitoring and Assessment", to also carry preoperative preparation and infection-control measures that share the same before-the-procedure, non-anesthetic character, since none of this subcategory's other groups fit them.